I grab it and crumple it in my palm. “He didn’t bring him here.” I pause. “I didn’t bringyouhere.”
“Would you like me to leave?”
“No. I just …” My voice trails off. I stare at the ceiling.
He touches my chin and brings my gaze to meet his. Those blue eyes are so intent on mine. “Tell me your thoughts, Callyn.”
“These notes you’re passing,” I say quietly. “They’re notreallyabout fabric shipments.”
“Some of them are,” he says.
“But not all.”
He traces a finger down my nose. “Not all.” His finger drifts along my cheek, to my jaw, and then down my neck, sweeping along my collarbone until I shiver and catch his hand.
“Are you trying to distract me?” I say.
“Are you distracted?”
“No.” But yes. I am. He’s shifted closer, and he’s warm against me. His hand is like a lit coal under my own, burning against my skin. When he slides his hand under the fabric of my shift again, I inhale sharply.
But then his fingers close around my mother’s pendant. “Where did you get this necklace you wear?”
“It was my mother’s.” There’s a part of me that’s tense about him touching it, as if he’ll yank it off my neck just because he can. “It was given to us with her things. After … after.”
As always, he doesn’t take anything. He just eases it back against my skin, the warm, familiar weight settling into place.
Then he says, “It’s Iishellasan steel.”
I freeze. “What?”
He nods. “From the ice forests. It can bind—”
“Magic,” I whisper.
His eyebrows go up. “You know.” A dark look flickers in his eyes. “Ah, yes. The king’s pet used his rings to heal the blacksmith. So you’ve seen what it can do.”
I touch the pendant the way I’ve done a thousand times. I suddenlyexpect it to feel cold, but it’s warm as ever under my fingertips. “My mother … mymotherhad amagicpendant?” I say.
Alek shrugs a little, as if this conversation is somewhat dull, as if he hasn’t completely knocked my world off its axis. “Likely not. Iishellasan steel can be bound torepelmagic just as easily. The Truthbringers have found many such artifacts of old. There are swords and daggers and even arrows that can bring harm to a magesmith—but there are a few, like this, that can bring protection to the wearer.” He taps the necklace. “I’m glad you wear it. You’re lucky she left a bit of protection for you.”
I close my fingers around the warm steel. My throat is tight with so much emotion I’m not sure what to do with it. If my father had been wearing this necklace, would he still be here today?
Or did it keep me and Nora safe when we were mere feet away from the magic that burst through the Crystal Palace?
Oh, Mother. There are so many things I wish I could go back and ask her.
Alek traces a finger along my hairline, and I blink up at him. “You said the Truthbringers have a lot of this steel?”
“More than a bit. Less thana lot.” He pauses. “The Truthbringers are loyal to Syhl Shallow. We would never seek to harm the queen.”
I stare at him, the candlelight flickering over his features. I can’t decide if he looks passionately earnest or terrifyingly sinister. Somehow, as usual, it’s both.
“You want to kill the king,” I whisper.
“I’m not the only one. You were there on the day of the Uprising. Many of those people had no desire for violence—but they all died anyway. There are rumors that he can’t control his magic. That he’s injured the queen somehow, but they’re hiding it.” He pauses, his eyes searching mine again. “What wouldyoudo, if the king were to show up on your doorstep?”
“Faint from shock.”
